The invention is concerned with cutting torches and in particular to oxygen-fuel cutting torches.
Gas cutting torches utilizing fuel gas and oxygen have been successfully used for many years for cutting work materials such as metal plate and the like. In a typical example, oxygen and a fuel gas such as acetylene are fed to the torch from separate sources. The oxygen is separated into two streams, one of which is mixed with fuel gas at the burning tip or elsewhere for feeding a preheating flame which heats the work material to combustion temperature. The other portion of the divided oxygen stream comprises the cutting oxygen which is separately fed to the torch burning tip for impinging on the preheated zone of the work material to achieve actual cutting of the material.
Cutting torches of the type described above have in the past been designed in a large variety of configurations, including a comparatively complex arrangement of individual tube components which conduct the several gases to the desired points in the apparatus. Valves are positioned in the respective tubes or conduits to regulate and control the flow of the various gases. In a so-called equal pressure torch for example, cutting oxygen, preheat oxygen and fuel gas are fed through individual tubular conduits to the torch tip. Each of these several conduits is in turn secured to other portions of the apparatus such as by heat-joining techniques, including soldering, brazing and the like. Accordingly, a number of joints may be required to join the various conduits thereby adding to complexity in construction. The resulting apparatus is therefore not only relatively costly to construct but often tends to be awkward and uncomfortable to handle as it may possess poor balance and weight distribution; also the arrangement is generally unattractive in appearance.
Accordingly, the present invention is concerned with an improved and relatively inexpensive oxygen-fuel cutting torch having unitary and simplified construction.